


The Tall Stranger

by AsimovSideburns



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 11:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20191396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsimovSideburns/pseuds/AsimovSideburns
Summary: The Director interviews a mercenary about a missing companion





	The Tall Stranger

Barry Bluejeans wasn’t a tall man, and if you’d talked to him for ten minutes then you couldn’t call him a stranger anymore, he was so friendly. But sometimes, a short man is the the tallest in the room… metaphorically speaking, I mean. And though he was my friend, he was sometimes a stranger to me all the same.

The first time I met Barry, I didn’t think all that much of him. It’s not that he wasn’t talented, or likeable, but just that he doesn’t have that aura of… well, violence, I guess, that most fighters give off. Most mercenaries, they carry their swords in a way that’s meant to be seen, and they wear their armor like a resume. Barry carried his sword like a part of him, and he never wore armor at all–just those blue jeans and a white cotton shirt. I suppose I should have realized what that meant at the time, but I’ve never claimed to be the most observant person around.

He had an odd way about him, too. He had the air of a man who was always looking for something, though he’d never tell anyone what it was; sometimes I think that even he wasn’t sure. He’d forget things, too, things like names and places, and battles that should have burned themselves into the mind of anybody who’d seen them. Not right away, and not always, but more than most people, and it stood out. After a while, he got a coin, enchanted some way or another, that would talk to him, remind him of things. It bothers me, that coin. I remember asking him how he never forgot to keep it separate from his spending money, and when he showed it to me it was… different. But I can’t ever remember quite how. Like my mind keeps slipping off it.

What was I saying? Right, Barry.

I don’t travel with Barry Bluejeans anymore. I won’t take a job if he’s on it. That man, he’s not what he seems. Sure, he’s friendly, and funny, and a damn good fighter, but sometimes…

I’ve seen him do things he shouldn’t be able to do. I’ve seen him melt the flesh off a man at ten paces and forget he’s done it a minute later. I’ve seen his eyes turn red and his voice echo and his hands catch fire in the heat of battle. I’ve seen him die, more than once, until I meet him again and he greets me like the best of friends.

But he’s a stranger to me, now. And the tallest man in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by tumblr user blue-mood-blue, who did a fic title meme/game/thing!
> 
> Somebody asked what they would write for “The Tall Stranger” and they said their first inclination was a Barry story, although they gave some reasons they thought it wouldn’t work for them, and it really knocked something loose in my creative brain!
> 
> So, thanks, blue! You inspired my first taz ficlet.


End file.
